


We Made A Pact

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2017-12-27 21:22:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tale of saviour and demise in the form of a high school AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is going to be pretty angsty and may possibly be triggering for people so if it is, please don't read it. (I will post some happy fluff at some point so you can read that instead).
> 
> I'm bad at summaries and didn't want to give anything away so just give it a chance and I will give you love.
> 
> Also this is unbeta'd so kindly ignore any mistakes, I've been at it for a few hours.

_One, two. One, two._ The beat of Dean’s feet on the leaf covered forest floor kept him grounded while he forced his lungs to work again. He pretended he didn’t know where he was going, but deep down, in a dark unacknowledged crevice of his being, he knew that his feet were carrying him to the lake. The lake where he so often found himself sitting and staring at the lapping water just wondering how easy it would be to “fall” in and not try to escape.

 _Breathe in, breathe out, now repeat_. He pushed the air in and out of his lungs, forcing the fist of anxiety constricting his airflow to loosen. He couldn’t remember how long these attacks had been bothering him but he knew that one day they would kill him. One day he would wind up at the lake and wouldn’t just think about jumping in. He knew that one day watching the gentle waves just wouldn’t be enough. However, this attack didn’t bring about the demise of Dean Winchester. His feet picked up the pace and he was almost sprinting by the time he broke through the rim of trees that surrounded most of the lake.

Dean doubled over trying to cough up his traitorous lungs while the sun sat low in the sky with its uncaring glow falling on the watchful trees that towered hundreds of feet over the clearing and the quiet street opposite them. The world went on, and time kept turning while Dean Winchester caught his breath, and Castiel Novak filled his lungs with lake water. It didn’t take Dean long to realise he wasn’t alone. He heard the furious splashing of the water even over the pounding in his ears. When he glanced up his brain stopped thinking about itself, and threw his body into motion. He ran faster than he ever had while stripping off his leather jacket, worn out jeans and faded green over shirt. He stopped just at the edge of the water, took a deep breath as he pulled off his black t shirt, then hurled himself straight into the menacing blackness below. He swam to the body that was slowly giving up its’ fight for air and grabbed the other boy by his shoulders. His mind scrambled to remember what he had learned in a life saving module he had taken in 6th grade when his class had all gone swimming. Once Dean had dragged both of them to the surface, he changed his grip on the boy, who had finally lost consciousness. He shifted the other boy so that he was floating on his back, then Dean grabbed him by the chin using two fingers and pulled the boy behind him while he swam on his side back to land.

Dean’s muscles ached from the speed he was kicking his legs at and they were just about to give out when his outstretched arm collided with the green bank of land at the edge of the lake. He clambered out of the water and hauled the other boy up onto the bank. He laid the boy out on his back and took a first look at who he had just pulled from the lake. He recognised the face but couldn’t put a name to it. Was it Casiel or Cassio or something? It definitely began with a Cas anyway, that much Dean was certain of. Dean reached over Cas’ unconscious body to find his discarded jeans and rooted around for his cell. He dialled 911 while he tried desperately to remember CPR. The operator spoke calmly and informed him that assistance was one the way. She then told him to put the phone down next to him and turn on loudspeaker so she could talk him through the steps of CPR.

“Okay Dean, you need pinch his nose-really tight now so no air can escape, tilt his head back to open up his airways, then take a big deep breath and cover his whole mouth with yours. After that, you need to blow all the air from your lungs into his. Can you do that Dean?” the voice drifted up from the phone sitting by Deans’ knee. He nodded, forgetting that she couldn’t actually see him and followed her orders as best he could.

“Pinch. Tilt. Breathe. Cover. Blow” he muttered to himself before forcing all the air from his lungs into Cas’ water logged ones. “Okay, what next?” he asked a little louder so the 911 operator could hear him.

“Well done Dean. Help is on the way, we need you to keep going. Now just repeat the same thing again. Pinch the nose, tilt the head, cover the mouth and breathe.  We’re going to work in a two breaths to 30 compressions ratio until the EMTs arrive.” Dean had stopped listening as soon as she told him to repeat the action and was blowing air into Cas’ lungs again.

This time Cas coughed a little and water came bubbling from his mouth. Dean gently tilted his head to the side to drain the water away before asking “What next?”

“Now we’re going to start compressions Dean. I need you to clasp your hands together, one over the other. Clasp your left hand over your right hand with both palms facing down. Stretch the fingers of your right hand out straight and place the heel of your hand on the centre of his chest. Then push down quite hard and repeat this thirty times, counting one and two as you go. You’re trying to capture the heart between two bones and force it to pump. Can you do that Dean?” The voice rambled on while Dean tried to put his hands together in the correct formation.

He pressed down on Cas’ chest with as much strength as he could and counted out loud “One and two and three and four...” and so on until he reached 30.

“Good job Dean you’re doing great. Now go back to the breathing again. Two breaths, remember: pinch, tilt, breathe, blow.” Dean was pouring the capacity of his lungs into Cas’ body once again but just before he leaned in to give the second breath, Cas’ upper body flew up from the ground in a fit of coughing and spitting. The water from his lungs splattered all across Dean’s bare chest but Cas didn’t pass out this time.

Dean grabbed the phone from the floor with one hand while keeping Cas sitting up with his other, “Um, he’s awake again. I think the water’s gone. What do I do now?” He muttered.

“Excellent work Dean, he’s out of immediate danger so you just need to keep him warm until the EMTs arrive. I’ll be right here if anything happens.”

Dean gently lay Cas down on the ground before darting up the bank to retrieve his discarded leather jacket. He raced back to Cas and yanked off the wet trench coat he was wearing before wrapping him up in the dry leather. He sat up straight, pulled Cas’ back to his chest and began to vigorously rub the smaller boys’ arms to warm him up. They sat like this for almost 10 minutes while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Cas’ shivers slowly subsided and Dean muttered nonsense into his ear to keep him awake while he rubbed his arms.

When the ambulance finally arrived dean thanked the 911 operator, she praised him for saving a life, and he ended the call. The EMTs pulled Cas from Dean’s arms before placing an oxygen mask on his face, forcing him to lie on a gurney, and then lifting him into the back of the ambulance. One then turned to Dean, told him to grab the rest of his clothes and hop in if he was coming. Dean jumped to his feet and flew around trying to find all his discarded clothing before climbing into the back of the ambulance with Cas and one of the EMTs. He dressed quickly while the engine started and the vehicle began racing toward the hospital.

The journey took a total off twenty five minutes and during that time Dean reflected on what had just happened. He thought about what the 911 operator had said. He had actually just saved a life.

 _How can someone like me be a hero, I’m nothing but a screw up who can’t build up the strength to end my own misery,_ he thought to himself. Dean was startled from his thoughts by the haggard coughing of the boy on the gurney. He was shivering again despite the leather jacket and the extra blanket the EMTs wrapped him in, so Dean reached out to grab his hand and keep just a little bit of him warm. Dean examined Cas’ weakened body and wondered how this had happened. How had the boy with the unruly hair, and frighteningly blue eyes that took shit from nobody, ended up sinking to the bottom of the very same lake that Dean had so often thought about dying in? Dean knew Cas from around school, he knew the guy didn’t have many friends and never looked overjoyed with life, but he didn’t think he was that miserable. _Maybe_ _I should have made a greater effort to know his name and not just what it begins with,_ Dean suggested to himself while the ambulance pulled up to the back door of the hospital.

The driver of the ambulance opened the back door and helped the EMT that was sitting with Dean lift Cas out and pushed him into the ER. Dean ran after them but was stopped by nurses in the ER who informed him that he couldn’t go with Cas and that he had to wait in the family and friends waiting room. He was directed down a long sterile hall that hurt his eyes with its’ brightness, and into a small room that was supposed to be comforting, but really it just added to the tension he could feel building in his shoulders. He sat in one of the uncomfortable green chairs and stared vacantly at the table that was overflowing with magazines and various other things designed to occupy the minds of concerned family and friends. He thought about what he was even doing here. He didn’t know Cas all that well but he couldn’t leave him there all alone. It would have been cruel to make the poor guy wake up alone after something like that and Dean knew nothing about his family so he just sat in the waiting room until a nurse came to talk to him.

She brought his leather jacket with her and informed him that the rest of Cas’ clothes were being washed and would be brought to his room when they were ready. She asked about his relationship to Cas and he just said friend. When she asked about his family Dean couldn’t provide much more than his name starts with Cas and he was a junior at Lawrence High School. Then she told him that Cas was sedated in room 27 if Dean would like to see him, she also agreed that Cas shouldn’t wake up alone and informed him that it might take a while to locate his family.

Dean stumbled out of the little waiting room, leather jacket in hand and made his way to room 27. He stopped just inside the door of the room and the full force of what had happened hit him like the metaphorical freight train. Dean looked down at Cas’ sleeping form and imagined being in his place. He imagined how his family would feel looking down at his weak and unconscious body. He thought about how it would affect Sammy and how much his mother would cry and he imagined the pain that would be visible in his fathers’ face no matter how hard he tried to hide it. The thoughts overwhelmed him as he gazed down on the broken boy lying broken in the hospital bed, completely alone. Tears blurred Deans’ vision as he walked over to the chair beside the bed. He hung his jacket over the back of the chair before collapsing into it and letting the tears fall. Hi picked up Cas’ hand again and grasped it like it might disappear. He pressed their joined hands to his quivering lips and promised Cas he would make things better in a gentle whisper. He swore before a god he wasn’t sure existed that he would make sure Cas never ended up here again. It was odd thing to do, Dean knew that. He knew it wasn’t normal to cry at the bedside of someone you barely knew and promise to make their life better but in that moment he didn’t care because there was some stronger, greater force willing him to do it.

Dean left the room and called his mother. He told her he was staying at a friends’ house to do a project. She wasn’t impressed with the fact that it was a Thursday night but let it go with nothing but a light scolding. After this, Dean sat back down, picked up Cas’ hand again and settled into the chair for the night.

He woke in the early hours of the morning when a nurse came in to check on Cas. The rising sun gave everything an orange glow and made the room warm. He stood up and stretched, his bones cracking from the night spent on the chair. The nurse gave him a sad smile and said that Cas would be asleep for another few hours. Dean headed to the bathroom and he didn’t recognise his own face in the mirror. He still looked sleepy and his jaw was uncharacteristically stubbly but there were severe undertones of concern and almost fear threaded through his expression. He splashed water on his face to wake himself up a little and then decided to find some coffee before Cas woke up. _Screw school_ he thought as he waited for the elevator.

The coffee was only mediocre but it was hot and black so Dean decided it would do. He trudged back towards the elevator as his body entered more into the realm of awakeness. He stumbled out of the metal doors, coffee in hand only to be met by an unexpected site. The nurses must have located Cas’ family at some point in the night ,because right outside the door of room twenty seven, there was a woman around the same ages as his own mother crying into the shoulder of a man just a little older than Dean, while she clutched a wrinkled sheet of white paper. A note Dean realised with a sinking feeling in his stomach.  A second man of approximately his fathers’ age was standing staring blankly through the window of the room as if he wasn’t really a part of this nightmare. Dean heard Cas’ mothers’ sobs and his heart broke just a little more when she released the young man, presumably Cas’ brother, and fell to her knees begging God to help her.

Deans’ eyes filled with tears once more but this time he didn’t go and sit at Cas’ bedside. No, he threw is half empty coffee cup in the nearest trash can, then he turned, and walked away. He wouldn’t bother their family at a time like that so he walked straight out of the hospital and in a daze he made his way home to an empty house while the world kept going about its’ usual Friday morning business.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, my deepest, sincerest apologies to the people who actually subscribed to this because it's been approximately 400,000 years since the first chapter.
> 
> This chapter has kind of nothing but was just needed to help move the plot along. There should be main character interaction and the like in the next chapeter which will probably be posted on star date 2564 knowing me. (Sorry)
> 
> As always, un-beta'd so please ignore the mistakes that have slipped past me.

While Dean slowly made his way back home on the frost bitten Friday morning, Castiel began to wake up. The first thing he noticed was the burning pain emanating from his chest that told him he was still very much alive. As the haze of medication cleared from his mind, he remembered shards of the previous night. He remembered the despair finally swallowing him so deep he couldn't see where he came from, but not deep enough to see an exit. He recalled the desperate dash to the lakeside and the biting temperature of the water that trapped him and filled his lungs. After that, the memories were even more broken. He had a fragmented recollection of a warm, gentle body, with a deep voice with startling green eyes. He remembers feeling safe and almost at peace in the stranger's arms. 

Castiel gradually forced himself to full consciousness and pushed his eyes open the minimum amount. He dragged air into his lungs despite the burning he still felt in them and he attempted to glance around the room. Without his glasses, he couldn't't make out much on the far side of the room but he noticed a dark brown leather jacket hanging from the back of the generic green hospital armchair that stood watch at the side of his bed. The presence of the jacket reminded Castiel of the surprising absence of his family at his bedside. He knew, or rather thought, that he didn't mean much to his famiy but he was still a minor and some stranger had dropped him off at a hospital following a suicide attempt, "surely they would have been notified?" Cas thought to himself. He was pondering the ownership of the jacket on the chair (knowing none of his family would wear it) when he finally became aware of the bare state of his arms. He glanced down quickly to ensure that the sleeves of his standard hospital gown covered the scars that littered his upper arms. 

His eyes searched the room for any article of his own clothing but when he found none he just reached over to grab the jacket from the arm chair. He yanked out his IV needle to slip his arms into the warm coat. The removal of his IV line had triggered an alarm at the nurses station and a frenzied young woman with pale skin and contrasting dark hair, raced into the room just as Cas settled back down against the limp pillows. Seeing that he was alive and well, she tsked and told him not to mess with the IV line before fiddling with the beeping machines and preparing his hand to take the new needle when he refused to take off the stranger's jacket that was unusually soothing to him . 

"Is there anyone here?"he croaked. He coughed to wake up his vocal chords before trying again, "I mean, are my family here?"

"Oh! They just went downstairs to get some breakfast before you woke up. Your boyfriend was here through the night before they arrived,"she paused to think for a second, "but I haven't seen him in about an hour or so, not since rounds this morning."  
He hissed as she pierced the skin on his hand before his mind finally registered what she had said. "What boyfriend?" he thought, "I don't even have friends, never mind a boyfriend."

"Um, sorry, who?"he asked her, hoping he could pull off the drugged-and-confused look. She looked at him warily from the corner of her eye but indulged him all the same,

"Y'know Dean, your wonerful and heroic boyfriend whose jacket you're so attached to at the minute. He seems like a nice kid, you're lucky to have him. Y'should have seen his face when he saw you lying there, almost broke my heart. I can tell you guys make an adorable couple though," she rambled, a little insensitively considering the situation, but Cas knew there was no genuine malice behind her words. However, her little speech did manage to clear up a problem or two regarding the jacket (let's pretend it didn't create 700 more regarding who this guy was and why was he pretending to be Cas' boyfriend, shall we?)

"Oh yeah... Dean... Do you uh think he left?"Cas tried to come across as casual and if he didn't, the nurse pretended not to notice when she said,

"Yeah, sweetie he probably did, it's almost 9.30 so he probably had to go to school, but I'm sure he'll be back later and delighted to know you're well and truly out of the woods," she was trying to comfort him and for some strange, unidentifiable reason, thoughts of this boy returning managed to soothe the ache in his chest and fill the numb, black, cavernous void in his head. "I'll let your parents know you're awake the second I see them though. Also your doctor will be around in a while just to have a chat with you. Until then, can I get you anything?" she asked politely. Cas thanked her but declined, saying that he was satisfied with the water on the table next to the bed, then she gave him one more pleasant smile and left the room with a "Call if you need anyting, sweetie."

While she was a lovely woman, Cas was glad to be alone again. His patience for happy people had been slowly deteriorating up to that point. Cas mentally prepared himself for the chaos and pain that would surely come when his family came back. He knew he would have to face a ridiculous amount of probing questions, both from them and the doctor later on. He knew that all members of staff would eye him suspiciously when he was alone, fearful that he was stupid enough to try something in a hospital. And he new that there was a distinct possibility that he would be forced to stay in the hospital for a prolonged period of time in a psychiatric ward. He knew all of these things but he couldn't't remain focused on them. He didn't't want to think about the right way to answer questions such as "why did you try to end your own life?" and "what were you apologising for in your note?". 

No, instead he let his mind wander to tall, handsome strangers, with beautiful green eyes and a warm, safe presence. He felt himself sink into the leather jacket and pull the homely scents from the well worn material. He allowed himself to be temporarily comforted by this mysterious "Dean" character, even if he turned out to be an axe murderer.

His family, the doctor and multiple nurses all came and went to and from his room over the next few weeks while they held him there. The nurse from the first morning, Tessa, arrived to the room on the first Sunday carrying Castiel's beloved, if ill fitting, trench coat. Cas knew he had been wearing it that night but couldn't find it with the rest of his clothes in the small closet of the square hospital room. It had been washed and pressed (messily pressed but pressed all the same, someone made a effort at least) and Tessa told him Dean had dropped it off at the front desk that morning. She babbled for a minute or two about how handsome and pretty Dean was and how lucky Cas was 'cause she would just sell her soul to date a guy like him (maybe a few years older though) and so on and so forth. 

When it was time for Cas to go home, he had almost gone crazy from just thinking about Dean. His only description of the other teen was from Tessa and contained far too many "dreamy"s and "molten emerald eyes" for it to be entirely reliable. Cas' mind formed a vision that resembled someone he half knew, maybe from school? And accepted it as the mysterious stranger who pulled him from the lake. Castiel needed to know who this guy was and he supposed that he probably needed to return the leather jacket too. With his hospital imprisonment drawing to an end, Cas was anxious to leave and rejoin normal society. He feared that the stability and contentment he found in the previous few days would be destroyed by reality once again but he was spurred on by the challenge of finding this one person who may be able to help things and make things a little bit more bearable. He needed to find Dean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave any comments etc below, I will be eternally grateful.
> 
> Come say hi over on tumblr: aplagueuponyourhouse.tumblr.com
> 
> And also feel fre to try and motivate me in any way you wish if you want more frequent updates. (just fyi, I am not above taking bribes)

**Author's Note:**

> There have been/will be liberties taken with some aspects of this fic. Take for example the CPR bit, I've had one or two classes of CPR training so I am by no means an expert and I also know very little about how the american education system works so please excuse any mistakes made in reference to that.
> 
> Feel free to leave comments etc here or on my tumblr: www.aplagueuponyourhouse.tumblr.com


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